Beware the candidate who runs attack ads

Campaign advertising is all around us. Much of it is in the form of attack ads meant to make us vote against particular candidates. These ads are full of misstatements and just plain lies. Behind the attack ads is money, and behind the money is that old devil greed.

When an ad is focused on making one of the candidates look bad, we need to consider some questions.

1. What is this? It’s an attack ad. There may or may not be truth in it, but if there happens to be any, there’s no way you can tell it from the lies.

2. Who paid for it? A super-rich corporation and/or people with special interests involving money to protect. They may be hiding their identities behind patriotic-sounding names chosen to make it seem that they represent ordinary people.

3. What do they want? They want to elect candidates who will help them to get even richer at the expense of the rest of us. They want fewer social services and less effective education. They want more deregulation, tearing down laws that protect ordinary people.

4. Why should we care? Particularly on the local and state levels, we can have a real influence. There are some good candidates here. Your vote is important to help them to get elected, to protect your interests and those of your family.

5. What should we do? When an attack ad reaches you, there are two good choices. One is to ignore it. The other is to vote for a candidate who is the victim of a large number of attacks. With so much money being spent against the candidate by special interests, he or she must be a good person that they are afraid will win.

The Naturalist's Corner

Number one daughter had a big camping weekend planned with friends and their families at Lake Chatuge over Labor Day. So we came up with an impromptu plan for Maddie and us. We made reservations at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. We had taken Izzy to the aquarium when she was a tot and she enjoyed it, Maddie had never been so we figured this was a good opportunity.